Roger Vadim (26 January 1928 – 11 February 2000) was a French screenwriter, film director/and producer, as well as an author and occasional actor.

Cause of Death

Cancer

Occupation Text

Director, Screenwriter, Actor

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Father

Igor Nikolaevich Plemyannikov

Mother

Marie-Antoinette Ardilous

Year(s) Active

1950–1997

Profile Bio Text

Roger Vadim was born Roger Vladimir Igorevich Plemyannikov, on January 26, 1928, in Paris, France. Although his father gave him the first name Vladimir, the French law then required a French first name. His father, Igor Nikolaevich Plemyannikov, was a Russian-Ukrainian aristocrat who was born in Kiev, and emigrated with the White Russians after the Communist revolution of 1917. His mother, Marie-Antoinette Ardilouse, was a French actress. Young Roger Vadim spent his childhood in Turkey and Egypt, where his father served as a French diplomat. Roger Vadim was brought up in a multi-lingual home with an intellectually stimulating environment, and he enjoyed a highly cultural atmosphere of his parents circle. However, after the divorce of his parents, Vadim had to live on his own, and soon, he simply abandoned his cumbrous last name. Upon his return to Paris, Vadim caught an acting bug and made his stage debut at the age of 16. From 1944 to 1947, he studied at Institut d'études politiques de Paris at University of Paris but dropped out at the age of 19 to pursue a career in acting and writing. In 1947, he wrote his first novel and presented it to André Gide for a review. However, Gide was not excited about Vadim's first novel and encouraged him to pursue a career in film. Upon André Gide's introduction Roger Vadim became an apprentice of film director Marc Allégret, as an assistant director and co-writer. At the same time he was also a part-time journalist with the Paris Match magazine.
In 1950, Vadim lived in the Paris apartment of Danièle Delorme and Daniel Gélin and was babysitting for their 3-year-old son, who once demanded Vadim to make him a paper airplane. Vadim took a March 8, 1950, issue of the Elle magazine to rip out a page, but doing so, he saw a photo of Brigitte Bardot, then a 14-year-old fashion model. Vadim became fascinated with Bardot's image, and gave her photo to director 'Marc Allegret', who was about to film Vadim's script. Although Bardot did not get a role, Vadim started a relationship with the young girl, while her parents were away. Soon, her enraged bourgeois parents tried to cut him off, and nearly sent Bardot to a school in England, but she and Vadim prevailed. His friends procured Bardot her film debut, so Vadim's relationship with her flourished. At that time, Bardot's father, Louis, was in rage and pulled out a gun on Vadim, causing everyone more shock and trauma. In December of 1952, shortly after Bardot's 18th birthday, she and Vadim were married. Four years later, Vadim directed her in the groundbreaking ...And God Created Woman (1956), which catapulted Bardot to international fame. Vadim, however, was left in the shadows. Bardot had fallen in love with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant and divorced Vadim before the film was released.
In the 1960s, Vadim became famous in America for his high-profile marriage to actress Jane Fonda, whom he directed in Circle of Love (1964), The Game Is Over (1966), Spirits of the Dead (1968) (also starring Jane's brother, Peter Fonda) and most famously in the science fiction spoof Barbarella (1968), which Vadim also wrote. After his separation from Jane in 1970, Vadim directed Angie Dickinson in the sex farce Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971), his first film to be shot in the United States. Vadim's later films did not arouse the same degree of interest. The American remake of And God Created Woman (1988), was a box-office dud, and Rebecca De Mornay was nominated for a 1989 Razzie Award as Worst Actress.
In his later years, Roger Vadim turned to writing memoirs. In his autobiography "From One Star to the Next" Vadim described his relationships with the women he loved. He had four children: Vanessa Vadim with Jane Fonda, Nathalie Vadim with Annette Stroyberg, Vania Plemiannikov with Catherine Schneider, and Christian Vadim with Catherine Deneuve. Roger Vadim died of cancer on February 11, 2000, in Paris, France, and was laid to rest in St. Tropez cemetery, Saint Tropez, France.

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